Marriott revealed several weeks ago that they were turning elite member upgrades over to artificial intelligence. This was designed to reduce the time hotels spend on the task, to save salary costs.
This new Automated Complimentary Upgrade (‘ACU’) system rolled out today.
Instead of a hotel’s rooms controller running upgrades the day before check-in, an algorithm does it and the room controller signs off on the list. This effectively, then, replaces the Guest Experiences Dashboard ranking elite members in terms of priority for upgrade.
Here’s how the new automated AI upgrade process works, from Marriott’s own internal documentation in DLZ, or Digital Learning Zone.
Currently hotels receive lists of guests checking in each day with the priority order Marriott recommends for assigning upgrades – the hotel should go down that list and assign better rooms until upgrades are no longer available. Not all hotels do this, and hotels still decide what ‘better’ means.
- Hotels still decides what rooms count as inventory for automatic upgrades.
- It will mean less work for staff (and, ultimately, fewer staff)
It is especially interesting to me that the process runs out of what appears to be the same inventory as nightly upgrade awards (“ACU checks eligible reservations against remaining Elite Upgrades Inventory”). Remember that not all rooms are made available for upgrade, only rooms Marriott expects not to sell. So a junior suite might be available for sale, but not for upgrade.
And Marriott quietly removed from its terms the promise to upgrade elite members to the best available rooms, including suites.
If a suite is available for sale and ready at the time of check-in for the full length of the stay, Marriott hotels no longer have to give it to you. (And some hotels leave suites not fully cleaned and ready until someone books them for cash in order to avoid offering them as upgrades, anyway.)
It’s still not clear how much this changes for the guest. The ‘system’ should be processing upgrades based on available inventory, instead of leaving it up to humans. But the rooms controller might use more generous inventory than the computer will, leaving Marriott elites less likely to be upgraded. On the other hand, a squeaky wheel today might press for an upgrade and get an upgrade assigned to someone else unblocked. This new process – which notifies the member of their new AI upgrade in advance – makes that harder.
Ultimately if this was somehow going to be good for Marriott guests, we’d have heard about it from Marriott – and they have not trumpeted the change.
(HT: One Mile at a Time)
Why don’t we just skip ahead to the guillotines?
@Gary
How will this affect requests under suite night upgrades? Do those still process starting 5 days prior?
Will this affect franchised properties that are either managed by owner or by management company?
Tks
Marriott & United seem to care little about their guests… But they sure love their AI Bots…
I rarely stay at a Marriott property…
@Dave Flaat — Sadly, it’ll be all companies, soon enough, not just those two. And as they adopt these tools, then proceed to lay off nearly all their employees, one has to wonder, who’s even going to be traveling anymore? Like, our economy is largely consumer-based. So, if we kill off the consumers’ income/wealth, is all of this just around for a few at the top? We’re about to find out…
Still wait and see on the execution of this. How will a guest’s manually entered room requests like facing the park or facing the pool be factored into room assignments? That’s my main concern.
Wouldn’t it be better if Marriott followed Hilton and allowed guests to review floor-plans, select their specific rooms? These general requests, like ‘high floor’ or ‘near/away from an elevator,’ etc., are not always honored as it is. I mean, for those that care, that’s a pretty nifty feature (getting to pick your room). Sure, it’s not at all properties, but where it is offered, I’ve appreciated it. Haven’t seen any other brands allow this, so kudos to Hilton on that at least.
Front Desk staff are still welcome to upgrade guests based on availability, even if the automatic upgrade does not go through. This system actually works to ensure all properties are routinely upgrading elite members instead of holding back inventory for upsells.
I’d certainly rather Marriott corporate controlled AI assign room upgrades over the individual properties, though I suspect there will be plenty of overriding.
@Doug – no change to Nightly Upgrade AWards
Simple Travel advice:
Don’t fly Frontier
Don’t rent from Hertz
Don’t stay at a Marriott
@Ron — Give us the ‘do’ list!
Do fly Delta
Do rent from Sixt
Do stay at Hyatt
Like, who is least disappointing?
Honestly I don’t have high expectations, it seems like most if not all of these AI systems companies are rolling out are frankly junk.
But to try placing a positive spin on this… if things go right, it’d mean:
1) A computer will dilligently upgrade as many people as are eligible. It’s entirely possible that a demotivated employee at the hotel will just not do this, so people that should have gotten an upgrade don’t receive it.
2) It does reduce the likelihood that a hotel employee (whether the customer is truly not eligible, or the employee was lazy and didn’t process their upgrade when they should have gotten it…) will be chewed out by a customer. Since there’s an automated tool that gave them the upgrade or not, not some discression of the people behind the counter.
Perhaps it’s just me, but Marriott’s Bonvoy and its loosely managed properties seem to be on a steep decline. Why does Marriott even bother to have a loyalty program that continues to disappoint? I read that someone even coined the expression: “You’ve been Bonvoyed.”
It seems like Marriott has successfully trained their staff to lie to customers and they want to put all of that training to good use. Using AI is a quicker and more efficient way to lie but they always have their staff to fall back on in case someone protests.
Here’s my rant. Why do we have to tolerate this AI intruder. Are we to become useless? It’s bad enough that many good jobs have been eliminated to technology and outsourcing. So what do we do? Does anyone recall the song 2525? It’s not going to take that long..What will 340 million do? That’s just this country. These geeks are dragging us into a bleak world and we have no option? We will become socialists. This cuts into our humanity. It’s a thief. And it’s the great leveler. I just heard that Meta and Rayban have made sunglasses that can give personal information on the person you’re looking at!! This is invasion of privacy! These people will soon have more power than our govt!
I’m actually curious if AI may improve my Marriott upgrade chances, after several hundred stays, and close to a thousand nights I’ve only had 2 true suite upgrades, this includes using their NUA/SNA’s
Hot take: This is only a plausible net positive because Marriott is such a hot mess in general on this front. And yet it doesn’t seem likely to fix the issue of hotels locking out suites by e.g. not cleaning them until there’s a reservation.
I think the biggest plus this would have is migrating Marriott’s Nazi franchises who simply will not acknowledge your status…that’s assuming they will be forced to use this system.
I am consistently a Marriott Titanium member due to work and maybe once have had a upgrade. I stayed in the Philippines last year at Marriott Clark for 94 days straight. I went as a Titanium. I asked several times and the answer was always no. The manager was very honest said we would loose money and can easily at this location book that room.
What good is status if you never honor it?
As an ambassador elite member with over 2000 nights. I receive a suite upgrade about 90% percent of my stays. Im normally staying at a luxury brand an Edition, W, JW, Ritz Carlton and rarely Full service Marriotts. I do consider what rooms are available for sale at time of booking. The hotels I frequent really go out of their way to upgrade me. Most often I will cancel at the desk and pay for closest suite available if the dont upgrade me. I have noticed it is regular practice of the hotels to leave suites uncleaned. I often call ahead several hours so they can prepare for my arrival.
Im normally traveling for pleasure an a suite is a must have and most of the luxury hotels seem to be very willing to upgrade me to keep me coming back. I hope the AI system may make it easier for elites that have not learned to navigate the system. Its July im at 130 night and 22k in spend seems the more often I frequent the same hotels the easier the upgrades have been to get. On average im paying 500 to 900 per night and normal staying in suites priced at 1500 to 3000 per night. Along with the number of points I accumulate for free stays and the number of upgrades and perks I still feel like Marriott still is the premier brand in hotels.
@BA — Wow, 94 consecutive days.. that might be a record (for that location). Did you get tired of the lechon and adobo?
I think I have had more of pancit, lumpia and balut.
I stay at Marriott properties where I can. It’s hard not to with lifetime status. Though I did just get back from a trip where I had to stay in a local fancy motel in Santa Barbara. It was refreshing. They didn’t charge for water they left in the room, it was spacious and comfortable, the showers actually had good water pressure.
I do notice in Asia especially those hotels that I frequent, they will give me an upgrade. Some like the Sheraton saigon don’t. I am a titanium level.. In Europe, 50% of the time I get an upgrade. I didn’t know that with Marriott, you can pay for a suite like it was with SPG
Absolutely do fly Frontier. Frontier is very clear what they offer. It’s a minimal experience for a minimal price with lots of upsells. There’s nothing wrong with that. These people are totally nuts.
On the other hand if Marriott is not offering what’s in there contract to the customers then that’s a good reason to steer yourself to a different hotel chain. But don’t give shade to Spirit or Frontier if that’s the very clear and obvious product that they’re already offering. You can’t give shade to Motel 6 for not putting you in a suite if they’re not selling suites and a selling a program that gives sweets for free.
Great news
I vastly prefer consistency to randomness. The way upgrades work right now IS totally random. A systemic formula is much better for everyone as it makes things predictable
I avoid Marriott whenever possible. Marriott isn’t loyal to elites, why should we be loyal to Marriott? Marriott has been reducing upgrades for years. Hotel owners that don’t want to offer upgrades will simply remove rooms available in the upgrade pool; “Hotels still decides (sic) what rooms count as inventory for automatic upgrades”.
AI is just gonna supercharge the US’s extraction economy. Let them eat GRONK.
@Zduss — Hey, you be nice to Rob. He may not be the smartest, but that man (helped) win 4 superbowls… bah!
I don’t understand what this has to do with AI. Any regular old algorithm could calculate a priority list for awarding upgrades. Aside from using more energy and more expensive processors, what does AI contribute to this simple computation?
My only guess is that the AI will be trying to “figure out” which guest is most likely to abandon Marriott for not granting the upgrade. If that’s the case, then it is necessarily going to be a more arbitrary system that makes decisions that it cannot explain on the basis of data that it won’t share. In other words, it will discriminate on the basis of a myriad of unknown factors, but we will be told that it’s an objective outcome because the computer said so.
AI is an expensive way to make things worse, while dodging responsibility for the outcome.
I’m a Platinum member with over 1,000,000 points. Just retired with a plan to use those points. But now it feels like the who program is falling apart.
We did a big driving trip this summer that involved 24 days in hotels. Marriott only got 5 of them because their $100-150 pet fees for a single night was crippling. In years past, all of those would have been Marriott’s.
You do know that there is a difference between and algorithm and AI right? This is an algorithm, not AI. While an AI makes its own often erroneous decisions, an algorithm just follows a preset list of rules and steps. One makes things less fair by adding random chance and a risk of halucinating rooms. The other removes random chance and unfair practices (like giving the upgrade to squeaky wheel instead if the person who actually deserves it). Assuming this runs correctly (yes, big assumption) this should make it more fair, not less, though it still doesn’t fix other potential hijinks like not marking rooms ready to avoid upgrades.
@Mark K. — “AI is an expensive way to make things worse, while dodging responsibility for the outcome.” 100%. Bingo! Winner-winner, chicken dinner! Louder for the people in the back!
@Former Athletics Fan — Congrats on your retirement. 1 million MR points still has real value. Even if you don’t want to transfer them for an epic redemption; with Schwab Platinum, you can at least get 1.1x value, $11K, so consider that your ‘breakeven.’ As to the ‘pet fees,’ it really is obscene. I’ve all but given up on trying to travel with our pups; hotels are price gauging on that basis, and no more flights with them (would never put them under, and even above, the other passengers are just horrible, often blaming dogs for all their own problems, as they are easy targets who can’t ‘talk back’). It’s sad, because earlier on, some of my favorite trips were with the ‘whole’ family, ya know.
@Stephen — ‘Big assumption.’ That’s the game, right there. As with the algorithms, AI tools are just another iteration of whatever the bias of the owner is. Sure, they could create prompts that attempt equitable or egalitarian approaches, but realistically, it’s just another method for self-aggrandizement and excessive profit. You’re hoping other people and companies will be ‘decent’ instead of ‘corrupt.’ I’m with you; I ‘hope,’ too. But, also, I know better…
Received an upgrade to a full suite for a Marriott in CA (lifetime elite). It was 3 days prior and no requests were made.